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Clayton Bailey

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Clayton George Bailey (March 9, 1939 – June 6, 2020), was an American artist who worked primarily in the mediums of ceramic and metal sculpture.

Clayton Bailey
Bailey in 2014
Born(1939-03-09)9 March 1939
Antigo, Wisconsin
Died6 June 2020(2020-06-06) (aged 81)
Port Costa, California
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison, B.S., 1961 M.S., 1962
Known forSculpture, Ceramics, Performance
MovementFunk art, Nut art
SpouseBetty Joan Graveen
Children2
Awards
  • National Endowment for the Arts Recipient 1979 & 1990
  • Fellow National Council on Education in Ceramic Arts (1982)
  • "Golden Bear Artist of the Year" Award and Commendation from the California Arts Council and the Lt. Governor of the State of California (2009)

Early life and education

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Clayton George Bailey was born on March 9, 1939, in Antigo, Wisconsin.[1] In middle school he met his future wife, artist Betty Joan Graveen (Betty G. Bailey).[1]

Bailey attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he received a B.S. degree in 1961, followed by an M.S. in Art and Art Education in 1962.[2] In 1962, Bailey served as a technical assistant to Harvey Littleton, who was conducting glassblowing seminars at the Toledo Museum of Art.

Career

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Over the next five years, Bailey traveled the country accepting invitations to teach, from the People's Art Center in St. Louis, Missouri to positions with the University of Iowa, and the University of South Dakota. During this period Bailey received a Louis Comfort Tiffany grant (1963), and was appointed artist-in-residence at University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, where he taught ceramics for the following three years.[2]

At the request of Robert Arneson, Bailey taught Arneson's classes at the University of California, Davis while Arneson was on sabbatical in 1967. In 1968, Bailey relocated to northern California, where he became a leading figure in the ceramic vein of the regional Funk art movement, pioneered by Arneson. Much of the Funk art activity was centered around UC Davis, where other prominent figures in the movement (Roy De Forest, Manuel Neri, William T. Wiley, David Gilhooly, Chris Unterseher, Margaret Dodd) either taught, or attended classes.[3]

A leading venue for exhibiting Funk art was at the Candy Store Gallery, located in nearby Folsom, California, where Bailey would regularly present work in the context of both solo and group shows.[4]

In 1968, Bailey began teaching at California State University, Hayward (now California State University, East Bay). He retired from this position in June 1996, with the title of Professor Emeritus of Ceramics.[2]

Bailey became an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church in 1969, then formed The First Psychoceramic Church with headquarters in the Dairyville Cafe in Crockett, California.[5] His church was created for the purpose of disseminating crackpot ideas (and performing the occasional marriage ceremony).[5]

In 1970, Bailey established a home-studio space in rural Port Costa, California, where he became neighbors with fellow artist Roy De Forest.[3] The two collaborated on numerous projects,[2] and remained friends until De Forest's death in 2007.

Overlapping the Funk art movement was Nut art, a term coined by De Forest,[6] which brought together many of the same practitioners including Arneson, De Forest, and Gilhooly, along with Peter Saul, Jerry Gooch, Victor Cicanski, Richard Shaw, David Zack. In 1972, Bailey co-curated the first-ever Nut art show at California State University, Hayward.[2]

Stylistically, Bailey's work bridged several different categories and styles including Funk art, Nut art, ceramic and metallic sculpture, and Performance art. A recurring thread through all his work is humor,[3] along with a high degree of craftsmanship.[7]

Another track for artistic expression developed with the creation of Bailey's alter ego Dr. George Gladstone, beginning in 1969. Initially, the works blended performance and creations based on pseudo-science and personal mythologies.[8] Works included the creation of fossilized remains (usually ceramic or from earth materials) and the classification of a new time period, the Pre-Credulous Era, the source of such Kaolithic curiosities as a cyclops skull and a Bigfoot skeleton.[2] Dressed in a lab coat and pith helmet,[3] Bailey as Dr. Gladstone performed excavations and staged performances and pranks. The World of Wonders, a traveling museum dedicated to Dr. Gladstone's life and work was developed, and presented in various venues, beginning with the Richmond Art Center. In 1976, the Wonders of the World Museum opened in downtown Port Costa, where it became a local tourist attraction until its closure in 1978. The collection is now split between Bailey's home-studio, and the Bailey Art Museum in downtown Crockett, California.[3]

 
Robot exhibit at the Bailey Art Museum

Over the years, the Dr. Gladstone character evolved into something more akin to a mad scientist, allowing Bailey to explore other forms of art with pseudo-scientific origins and associations.[3] Most notable have been sculptures based on robots, beginning in the late 1970s and continuing on to today, although this work is now presented, and credited as Bailey's, not Dr. Gladstone's. The latest offshoot of the metallic sculpture (built from found materials and objects) had been a series of Space Guns.[2]

In 1974, Bailey was profiled in Esquire Magazine as Dr. Gladstone. In the article written by Susan Subtle, "Their Arts Belong to Dada",[9] Bailey was featured alongside artists Lowell Darling, Anna Banana, Ant Farm (group), Futzie Nutzle, Dr. Brute & Lady Brute, Mr. Peanut, Irene Dogmatic, AA Bronson, Captain Video, Flakey Rose Hip, Henry Humble, The Gluers[10] and Dickens Bascom, Don and Rae Davis, and T.R. Uthco.

Bailey continued to work in a variety of mediums and styles until his death. Throughout his career as an artist, Bailey exhibited regularly throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia in both solo and group exhibitions. In 2011, Bailey was honored with a 50-year retrospective exhibition (Clayton Bailey's World of Wonders) at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California.[3]

Bailey and his wife, fellow artist Betty G. Bailey, resided in Port Costa, California from 1970 until their deaths.[3] Betty died on March 20, 2019. Bailey died at his Port Costa home on June 6, 2020. His health had deteriorated after a stroke in 2019.[11]

Bailey Art Museum

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In 2013, Bailey and his wife, artist Betty G. Bailey, founded the Bailey Art Museum in Crockett, California.[12] The Bailey Art Museum is near the Bailey's former home and studio in Port Costa.[13] The 3,200 square feet (300 m2) space brings together works from across the artist's five decades plus career featuring examples of Funk art, Nut art, ceramics, and metal sculpture (including robots and space guns), as well as pseudo-scientific curiosities by the artist's alter-ego Dr. Gladstone. The museum also includes narrative watercolor drawings by Betty G. Bailey and a gift shop.[14]

 
Betty G. Bailey and Clayton Bailey (2014) at the Peace Terrace in Oakland, California

In 2021, a large collection of Bailey's work was acquired by Curated Storefront in Akron, Ohio, through his daughter, Robin. Curated Storefront, an arts non-profit, has presented artwork in multiple unused spaces; commissioned and employed artists; offered educational outreach programs to further engage the public; and stimulated commercial development. The work now resides in a pop-up museum in downtown Akron in the historic Akron landmark building. The pop-up museum features many of Bailey's most iconic pieces such as his trademark robots, Jumping Judy and the Bigfoot Bones. This pop-up museum is also the largest collection of Bailey's work in the world. The pop-up museum also features merchandise for sale and is open to the public at no charge.

Awards and honors

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Public collections

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Selected Public Collections

Publications

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  • Nut Pot Bag or Clay Without Tears (artist book). Authored by Jim Adamson, Robert Arneson, Clayton Bailey, Fred Bauer, Maija Peeples-Bright, Victor Cicansky, David Gilhooly, Jim Melchert, Nicholas Stephens, Chris Unterseher, Peter Vandenberge, David Zack, Lowell Darling. University of California, Davis. 1971.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

References

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  1. ^ a b Hessig, Janelle (June 17, 2020). "Saying Goodbye to Artist and Prankster Clayton Bailey". KQED. Archived from the original on 2020-08-04. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g DePaoli, G. Joan; Bailey, Clayton (2000). Clayton Bailey : happenings in the circus of life (1st ed.). Davis, CA: John Natsoulas Press. p. 159. ISBN 188157282X.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Daniels, Diana L. (2011). Clayton Bailey's World of Wonders. Sacramento, California, USA: Crocker Art Museum. pp. 22, 44, 115. ISBN 978-1884038228.
  4. ^ Smithsonian Archives of American Art. "The Candy Store Gallery Records". SmithsonianArchivesOfAmericanArt. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  5. ^ a b "A Short Chronology of the Artist's Life." ClaytonBailey.com. Archived from the original.
  6. ^ Linhares, Philip E. (2011). Clayton Bailey's World of Wonders. Sacramento, California, USA: Crocker Art Museum. p. 8. ISBN 978-1884038228.
  7. ^ Albright, Thomas (1985). Art in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1845-1980: An Illustrated History. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. p. 231. ISBN 0520055187.
  8. ^ Albright, Thomas (1985). Art in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1845-1980: An Illustrated History. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. pp. 231–232. ISBN 0520055187.
  9. ^ Subtle, Susan (August 1974). "Their Arts Belong to Dada". Esquire Magazine.
  10. ^ "Literrata: Mill Valley's Unknown Museum and the Gluers Junk Art Movement". Literrata. 9 August 2017.
  11. ^ Whiting, Sam (June 8, 2020). "Clayton Bailey, pioneer of 'Nut Art' and the Port Costa Sky Cam, has died". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  12. ^ Staff writer. "Bailey Art Museum - Robots of Clayton Bailey, Crockett, California." RoadsideAmerica.com. Archived from the original.
  13. ^ Linhares, Diana L. Daniels; with essays by Philip E.; Frank, Patrick (2011). Clayton Bailey's World of Wonders. Sacramento, CA: Crocker Art Museum. pp. 1, 7–8. ISBN 978-1-8840-3822-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ Hamlin, Jesse (4 April 2013). "Bay Area arts news". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  15. ^ "Clayton Bailey's Curious Creations". American Craft Council. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  16. ^ "Bailey Art Museum / Wonders of the World Museum". Spaces Archives. 2016-01-21. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  17. ^ "NEA-Annual-Report-1979" (PDF). arts.gov.
  18. ^ Candice Finn. "Fellows of Council". National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  19. ^ U.S. Patent #4440390. (April 3, 1984). "Novelty Cup for Forcibly Ejecting Liquid."
  20. ^ "NEA-Annual-Report-1990" (PDF). arts.gov.
  21. ^ "Clayton BaileyCeleste, the Robot Tea Bag". Kamm Teapot Foundation. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  22. ^ "Press Releases". arts.ca.gov. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  23. ^ "Honorary Members". National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. 26 February 2021. Archived from the original on 2014-08-13.
  24. ^ "Phillips Academy - Addison Gallery of American Art - Clayton George Bailey, Nose Teapot". accessaddison.andover.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  25. ^ "Ceramics | ASU Art Museum". asuartmuseum.asu.edu. Archived from the original on 2019-07-19. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g h "Bailey | The Marks Project". www.themarksproject.org. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  27. ^ "Buns Robot". Crocker Art Museum. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  28. ^ a b Whiting, Sam (June 8, 2020). "Clayton Bailey, pioneer of 'Nut Art' and the Port Costa Sky Cam, has died". San Francisco Arts & Entertainment Guide. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  29. ^ "Wisconsin Artists Research Bibliography". www.library.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  30. ^ a b c d e "Clayworks: 20 Americans". Museum of Contemporary Craft of the American Arts Council.
  31. ^ "Creator Record - Clayton Bailey". John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
  32. ^ "Conversations.org: Interview: John Toki, by Richard Whittaker". www.conversations.org. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  33. ^ "Site | LACMA Collections". collections.lacma.org. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  34. ^ "The Mint Museum | Cyclops Skull". www.mintmuseums.org. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  35. ^ "Results – Advanced Search Objects – eMuseum". collections.madmuseum.org. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  36. ^ "Browse the Collection | OMCA COLLECTIONS". collections.museumca.org. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  37. ^ "Clayton Bailey | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  38. ^ "Crazy form, emotional function - Arts & Culture - Arts&Culture - October 20, 2011". Sacramento News & Review. 18 October 2011. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  39. ^ "Dog Lamp". SFMOMA. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  40. ^ "Clayton Bailey | Objects". collection.sjmusart.org. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  41. ^ "Conversations.org: A Conversation with Clayton Bailey, by richard whittaker". www.conversations.org. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
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